The Middle East has entered an unprecedented phase of strategic turmoil. Israel is aggressively deploying excessive military force, backed by American military superiority, through cross-border operations without any mandate or justification under the Charter of the United Nations – including, recently, its attack on Qatar on 9 September 2025. Such policies practices are more than tactical transgressions. They represent flagrant violations of international law, and are driving an escalating pattern of systematic state terrorism that threatens the entire international order. The effects of this strategy are no longer limited to the arena of military conflict, but have taken on economic and social dimensions, obstructing processes of development, increasing the fragility of economies, and forcing governments to re-prioritize spending to serve the demands of security – at the expense of education, health, and infrastructure.
Israel’s violations of international legal norms raise fundamental questions about the future of the global order and the rule of law. Its repeated resort to the use of force outside the framework of international law undermines the principle of refraining from the use of force, establishing a dangerous precedent that could tempt other states to adopt the same approach, threatening to dismantle the system of collective security. The undermining of legal norms also directly impacts investors’ confidence in the stability of the institutional environment, as they harbour growing doubts over whether contracts will be honoured, property rights guaranteed, and trade agreements implemented. The collapse of these norms opens the way to an international system dominated by the logic of force alone, increasing the likelihood of conflict and undermining opportunities for international cooperation.
